a-

Etymology
From the.

Etymology 1
From, from , originally , , from , from , from. Cognate with 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬.

Etymology 2

 * From, derived from unstressed , from
 * See a

Prefix

 * 1)  In, on, at; used to show a state, condition, or manner.  Also passing into sense 2.
 * 2)  In, into.  Also passing into sense 5.
 * 3) In the direction of, or toward.
 * 4)  At such a time.
 * 5)  In the act or process of. Used in some dialects before a present participle.
 * 6) * 1780, The Twelve Days of Christmas:
 * The twelfth day of Christmas,
 * My true love sent to me
 * Twelve lords a-leaping,
 * Eight maids a-milking,
 * Seven swans a-swimming,
 * Six geese a-laying,
 * 1) * circa 1850, /Here We Come A-caroling
 * Here we come a-wassailing
 * Among the leaves so green;
 * Here we come a-wand’ring
 * So fair to be seen.
 * 1) * 1964,, (recorded 1963, released 1964):
 * The order is rapidly fadin'
 * And the first one now will later be last
 * For the times they are a-changin'
 * 1) * circa 1970, bumper sticker:
 * If the van’s a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’.
 * Here we come a-wand’ring
 * So fair to be seen.
 * 1) * 1964,, (recorded 1963, released 1964):
 * The order is rapidly fadin'
 * And the first one now will later be last
 * For the times they are a-changin'
 * 1) * circa 1970, bumper sticker:
 * If the van’s a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’.
 * If the van’s a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’.

Etymology 3
From, a variant form of , from , from , from , from.

Etymology 4
From, from , from.

Etymology 5
From ( immediately followed by a vowel).

Prefix

 * 1)  Not, without, opposite of.
 * 2) * 1948 (revised 1952),, The White Goddess, Faber & Faber 1999, page 7:
 * When invited to believe in the Chimaera, the horse-centaurs, or the winged horse Pegasus, all of them straightforward Pelasgian cult-symbols, a philosopher felt bound to reject them as a-zoölogical improbabilities [...].
 * When invited to believe in the Chimaera, the horse-centaurs, or the winged horse Pegasus, all of them straightforward Pelasgian cult-symbols, a philosopher felt bound to reject them as a-zoölogical improbabilities [...].

Usage notes

 * This prefix is referred to as alpha privative.
 * Used with stems that begin with consonants except sometimes h. is synonymous and is used in front of words that start with vowels and sometimes h. For example,  and.

Translations

 * Asturian: a-
 * Catalan:
 * Danish: -a
 * Dutch:
 * French:
 * Galician:
 * German:
 * Irish: a-
 * Italian:
 * Latvian: a-
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål:
 * Nynorsk: a-
 * Occitan: a-
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese:
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic: а-
 * Roman: a-
 * Spanish: ,

Etymology 6
From, from , from.

Prefix

 * 1)  Towards; Used to indicate direction, reduction to, increase to, change into, or motion.

Usage notes

 * Used on stems that started with sc, sp, or st, and also used on stems with a French origin.
 * Used in place of ad-.

Etymology 7
From.

Prefix

 * 1)  Away from.

Usage notes

 * Variation of the prefix ab-, only used when the stem starts with the letter p or v, or (rarely) s in which case the s is doubled (as in assoil and assoilzie).

Etymology 8
From,. See a.

Prefix

 * 1)  Of, from.

Usage notes
Different Germanic and Latinate senses of a- became confused (vaguely “intensive") and are all unproductive. The Greek sense of “not” (e.g.,, ) remains in use.
 * “[I]t naturally happened that all these a- prefixes were at length confusedly lumped together in idea, and the resultant a- looked upon as vaguely intensive, rhetorical, euphonic [nice-sounding], or even archaic, and wholly otiose [pointless].” OED.

Etymology 1
.

Prefix

 * 1)  not, without

Etymology 2
From.

Prefix

 * , un- (not)
 * 1) A- (atomic, nuclear)

Etymology
From ( immediately preceding a vowel).

Prefix

 * 1) a-: Not, without, opposite of.

Etymology
From.

Prefix

 * 1) without, -less

Etymology
(see 🇨🇬), ultimately from.

Prefix

 * 1)  a-, non-, un-

Etymology
.

Etymology 1
, from.

Etymology 2
From ( immediately preceding a vowel; generalized from the many Latin borrowings using this prefix.

Prefix

 * , non-, -less

Etymology 1
From, from.

Etymology 2
, from.

Prefix

 * 1)  not; without

Etymology
From ( immediately preceding a vowel).

Prefix

 * 1) a- not, without, opposite of

Etymology
From, from , from.
 * Reinforced as borrowing from, from (form  immediately preceding a vowel), from , from the same.

Prefix

 * 1) a- not, without, opposite of

Etymology 1
From ( immediately followed by a vowel).

Prefix

 * 1) a-

Etymology 1
.

Prefix

 * 1) ad-

Usage notes

 * The Italian prefix a- often reduplicates the following consonant (syntactic gemination, raddoppiamento fonosintattico).
 * The actual forms usually will be (in ),  (in ),  (in ),  (in ) etc.

Etymology 2
.

Prefix

 * 1)  my

Usage notes
Used before bilabial voiced consonants: b-, m- and v-.

Etymology 2
From.

Etymology
Via other European languages, ultimately from ( immediately preceding a vowel).

Prefix

 * 1) Not, not having, without, opposite of.

Prefix

 * 1) someone's, people's

Usage notes
This prefix is often used as a neutral possessive pronoun to make the citation forms of inalienable nouns:, , , ,. The alternative is to use the prefix or  to make these dictionary forms.

Etymology
.

Etymology 1
From.

Prefix

 * 1) they;

Etymology 2
From.

Prefix

 * 1) of;

Etymology 1
From the first letter of the Norwegian alphabet, from , from , likely through the language, from , from Proto-Canaanite , from Proto-Sinaitic , from.

Prefix

 * 1)  indicating the first or best in something

Etymology 2
From, from , from. .

Compare ( immediately preceding a vowel).

Etymology 3
, from the noun, from , whereas atombombe is a calque of.

Etymology
From.

Etymology
From an earlier form, from , from. Cognate with 🇨🇬, (🇨🇬).

Prefix

 * 1) from, away, off, out

Etymology
From, which was often reduced to in compounds.

Prefix

 * 1) him
 * 2) it

Usage notes
This form merges with the prefixes, , , , , , and to form ra-, na-, da-, da-, fa-, ara-, imma- respectively. It disappears after the particle, its only trace being the mutation it causes (eclipsis in the case of the masculine, lenition in the case of the neuter), thus ní cara does not love vs. ní chara does not love it, ní ben does not strike vs. ní mben does not strike him.

Prefix

 * 1) un-, not

Etymology
From an earlier form, from. Cognate with 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, (🇨🇬).

Etymology
From.

Prefix

 * 1) they;

Etymology
From ( immediately preceding a vowel), from, zero-grade form of. .

Etymology 1
From, from.

Etymology 2
, from.

Prefix

 * 1)  not; without

Etymology
, from the preposition.

Prefix

 * 1) ad-

Etymology 1
From, derived from unstressed , from.

Prefix

 * 1) on
 * aback, agley, agrufe, athort, atween

Etymology 2
From, from.

Prefix

 * 1) off
 * adoon

Etymology 3
From.

Prefix

 * 1) to
 * adae, agae

Etymology 4
From, from , originally , , from.

Prefix

 * 1) away from
 * abide, arise

Etymology 5
From, from , from.

Prefix

 * 1) against, opposite
 * alang

Etymology 6
From, from.

Prefix

 * 1) one
 * awhile

Etymology 7
From ah!

Prefix

 * 1) ah
 * aweel, alake

Etymology 8
From, from , from.

Prefix

 * 1) towards
 * avise

Etymology 9
From.

Prefix

 * 1) away from
 * assoilzie

Etymology
From ( immediately preceding a vowel), from, zero-grade form of. .

Etymology 1
From.

Prefix

 * 1) they;

Etymology 2
From.

Prefix

 * 1) of;

Etymology 1
.

Etymology 2
From ( immediately preceding a vowel; generalized from the many Latin borrowings using this prefix.

Prefix

 * , non-, -less

Usage notes

 * Used with stems that begin with consonants except h. is synonymous and is used in front of words that start with vowels and h. For example,.

Etymology 1
From.

Prefix

 * 1) she, he;

Etymology 1
From.

Prefix

 * 1) he, she, it;

Etymology 2
From.

Prefix

 * 1) they;

Etymology 3
From.

Prefix

 * 1) of;

Etymology
, from.

Prefix

 * 1) at

Usage notes

 * Only used before Spanish cardinal numbers to tell the date for a month. For the first day of a month, is more correct but  is also used by younger speakers. The prefix has the same function as  for Tagalog cardinal numbers.
 * The prefix is optional but Spanish-oriented speakers often use it.

Etymology
From.

Prefix

 * 1) he, she;

Usage notes
Triggers of the following consonant.

Etymology 1
From.

Prefix

 * 1) they;

Etymology 2
From.

Prefix

 * 1) of;

Etymology 4
From.

Prefix

 * 1) not

Usage notes
Used in the indicative mood, prefixed to the subject concord.

Etymology 1
From.

Prefix

 * 1) he, she, it;

Etymology 2
From.

Prefix

 * 1) they;

Etymology 3
From.

Prefix

 * 1) of;

Etymology 4
Originally a reduced form of. Compare Swazi relative forms such as, which still keep the initial l-.

Usage notes
This prefix has conditioned allomorphs o- and e-.

Etymology 5
From.

Etymology 6
From.

Prefix

 * 1) not

Usage notes
Used in the indicative mood, prefixed to the subject concord.